Berlin - Legendary Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, who chronicled the rise of the Solidarity movement headed by Lech Walesa in an award-winning film almost 30 years ago, plans to return to the subject in a new movie.

Speaking at a Berlin Film Festival press conference Friday marking the premiere of his latest film Sweet Rush (Tatarak), Wajda said he wanted to set the record straight about Walesa, who he said has been the subject of "rumours and lies."

His new film, Sweet Rush, which delves into personal relationships, also represents a break from Wajda's previous movies, which tackled key historical and political questions.

Wajde's film Man of Iron about Walsea and the Solidarity movement won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or in 1981.

"Walesa is our national hero, irrespective of the mistakes he made as president," said Wajda, adding that the former Solidarity leader had played a critical role in bringing about the change in Poland that paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

"I want to do something to stand up for him," 82-year-old Wajda told Friday's press conference. Walesa was Polish president from 1990 until 1995.

Wajde's plans for a new film about Walesa come as Poland and other members of the Soviet bloc gear up to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism across Central Europe.

Sweet Rush is Wajda's 38th film. The director has previously delved into his country's painful Nazi occupation and communist past.

At last year's Berlinale, Wadje presented his last film, named for Katyn, a place where Soviet forces in 1940 killed some 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals. The movie told their story.

But Sweet Rush is a deeply personal story about an older woman whose life in turned upside down by a younger man, strongly played by Pawel Szajda, who eventually drowns.

Intertwined in Sweet Rush is also the story about the death of the acclaimed Polish cinematographer Edward Klosinski, who was the husband of the movie's main actress Krystyna Janda and who died during the film's shooting.

The end result is that Sweet Rush explores the pain of both Janda and the character she plays in the film. (dpa)